The central concern in this paper is the imagery of suffering that emerged from East Timor in the years of Indonesian military occupation prior to the 1999 vote for independence. These images included the widely televised footage of the massacre in the East Timorese capital, Dili, in 1991, and the circulation of a variety of photographs appearing to represent the torture, rape and execution of East Timorese men and women. Taking onboard issues of the representation and reception of violent events, this paper aims to explore the modes of address and reception that have either helped to reveal instances of suffering amongst the people of East Timor, or have obscured them to the point of disappearance. In this context the paper explores the issues of proximity and intimacy implied in Williams' notion of complicity, but also the relationship between obscenity and pain, as a way of thinking about media authenticity and affect. As a contribution to understanding both the political context of the media coverage of East Timor, and the spectatorial issues raised above, this paper asks: what role does the obscenity of bodily pain play in the representational politics of modern geopolitical conflicts such as East Timor?